Maryland State Police continue to investigate Thursday's deadly Beltway crash where a car drifted into a state highway work crew, killing 25-year State Highway Administration veteran Eddie Gilyard and injuring his co-worker, 38-year-old Nathan Brown.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report showing such tragic incidents are on the rise around the country.

According to a recently released report, a little more than 33,500 people died on the nation's roads, which is a 3.3 percent jump from the year before. Most of those crashes involved motorcyclists and pedestrians like in Thursday's crash.

"Really not just our workers, but anytime you get in a car, you are in danger," said Valerie Burnette Edgar with the SHA.

The SHA is reacting with caution after reviewing the report since Maryland's numbers and not that much better. In 2012, there were 505 deaths on Maryland's roads, which is a 4.1 percent jump from 2011.

But SHA officials pointed out that, according to their records, 2013 is shaping up to be a little better.

"We're seeing this year that it's tracking lower than last year, but December is one of the deadliest months of the year with a lot of drinking and driving," Edgar said.

That's something that Maryland has made little progress in over the past few years. The report shows there were 160 alcohol-related deaths in 2012, which is only one less than 2011 -- a drop of less than 1 percent.

The bottom line is that SHA officials said to bring the total number of deaths down, people need to be extra vigilant on the roads.

"The biggest thing we can say to people is buckle up, don't drink and drive, known the basics of the rules of the road, and pay attention for yourself as well as workers and emergency personnel out on the road," Edgar said.

Some positives were pulled from the report: Highway deaths over the past five years remain at historic lows, especially when compared to the 1950s and 1960s.

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